The 2016 ‘Ukraine on Fire’ film has been removed from the Google-owned video-hosting website. Oliver Stone’s 2016 ‘Ukraine on Fire’ documentary chronicling the modern history of Ukraine has been removed from YouTube.
The 2016 Ukraine on Fire’ documentary, which features filmmaker Oliver Stone and chronicles the tumultuous modern history of the country, has been removed by YouTube for being in violation of its guidelines.
The film’s director, Ukrainian filmmaker Igor Lopatonok claims that YouTube representatives informed him that the documentary was taken down for featuring “violent or graphic content,” but did not explain why it had never run into any problems before, despite being hosted on the platform for the past six years.
Lopatonok has taken to Twitter to urge people who enjoyed the film to download it and “post it everywhere.”
#YouTube #BigTech deleted #UkraineOnFire film from our production official channel, I'm asking everyone who like our film to download it from our Vimeo here and post it everywhere. As a copyright holder we giving to you – The People that rightshttps://t.co/k5fDPb5VPO pic.twitter.com/cMv2lrRV9A
— Igor Lopatonok (@lopatonok) March 9, 2022
Free-speech-orientated platforms such as Odysee and Rumble were quick to pick up on YouTube’s act of censorship and have since been promoting the film on their websites
BREAKING NEWS: YouTube removed @TheOliverStone's documentary, "Ukraine on Fire." We believe the public should decide what it sees, not Google execs. We're proud to announce the producers uploaded the film to Rumble, enabling anyone who wishes to view ithttps://t.co/aIqBs2zH4m
— Rumble
(@rumblevideo) March 9, 2022
‘Ukraine on Fire’ chronicles the events of the Euromaidan – a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest that gripped Kiev in November 2013, and explores what led up to the armed coup which ousted then-president Viktor Yanukovich and launched the country into an eight-year-long conflict with the eastern regions of Ukraine.
The documentary is currently available on a number of platforms, including Vimeo, Amazon, Rumble and Odysee.